Diminutive Biles a giant among all-time greats
When Simone Biles stood on her bare feet ready to mount the balance beam on Thursday, it seemed like she would need to get on her tiptoes to peer over the 1.25-meter apparatus.
But what the Biles lacks in height, she more than makes up in stature.
The 4-foot-7 American stood head and shoulders above all her rivals when she was crowned all-around champion.
For US team coordinator Marta Karolyi, who has enjoyed a five-decade coaching career, there is only one other gymnast who can be compared to Biles.
“She is right on the top,” said Karolyi, who along with her husband Bela steered Romanian Nadia Comaneci to the first perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Games.
“Simone is right there with Nadia. For me, the first Olympic champion and the last Olympic champion they are together. They are special,” added the 73-year-old, who will retire from coaching after these Games.
That puts Biles above many great gymnasts that Karolyi has worked with in a long and distinguished career.
She helped Mary Lou Retton become the first American to win an Olympic allaround gold in 1984, had a hand in Kerri Strug’s heroic vault at the 1996 Atlanta Games and guided all-around champions Nastia Liukin and Gabby Douglas among others.
Three-peat
Since making her debut at the 2013 world championships, the 19-year-old Biles has become an unstoppable force. Last year she became the first woman to win a three-peat of all-around golds at the worlds.
In Belgium, China and Scotland, she flew through the air faster and higher than her rivals, completing her acrobatic tumbles with solid landings.
Those skills also helped the gymnast nicknamed ‘$imoney’ to become the most successful female athlete at the worlds, with a record haul of 10 gold medals.
“She flies higher than any- one, has higher degree-of-difficulty value than we have ever seen, but what is even more impressive is that she delivers in the big meets,” said 2004 Olympic men’s floor champion Kyle Shewfelt.
“She is the most powerful, dynamic gymnast I have ever seen. She is breaking records left, right and center.
“At these Games she now has two medals and she could win another three, so her bags are going to be a lot heavier on the way home.”
Biles, though, wants no part of the debate.
“Someone could say I’m the best but then there is a whole different side of people saying I am not. So, I just stay out of it. It is what it is. I just do my gymnastics,” she said after collecting her second gold medal in three days.
Exclusive club
On Thursday, Biles completed a feat that no woman has pulled off for 20 years — winning back-to-back world and Olympic all-around titles.
Since the event was introduced to the Olympic program in 1952, only Soviet Union duo Larisa Latynina (1960) and Ludmilla Tourischeva (1972), Czech Vera Caslavska (1968) and Ukraine’s Lilia Podkopayeva (1996) have bagged the double. And now Biles.
“Just because you are at the top doesn’t mean you can stop — you have to keep going,” said Biles.
The American was too young to compete at the 2012 Olympics, but she was a high school senior at the start of the current Olympic cycle in 2013.
That meant sustaining her levels for four years, a stretch that is beyond most elite gymnasts.
“Some girls in past generations thought that by winning one world championship or winning two, they had arrived at the top,” added Karolyi.
“My advice is that you are just as good as you are today. Every single day you have to become better and better.
“Simone responded very well to that advice and I am so proud because of this.
“The longevity of her domination at this level, three world championships and an Olympic Games, I think is unprecedented.”